Comment

For companies, governments and households the basic task is the same: to overcome pandemic-induced disruptions in ways that also emphasize the silver linings of the crisis. A column by Mohamed A. El-Erian.

The new digital currency and its cross-border payments system together enhance the renminbi’s role. But this will hardly put a dent in the dollar’s status as the dominant global reserve currency. A column by Eswar Prasad.

Students in publicly funded but privately operated charter schools score remarkably higher on standardized achievement tests than do those in traditional public schools. A column by John B. Taylor.

Policymakers’ most important task is to try to reduce the massive lingering uncertainty while continuing to provide emergency relief to the hardest-hit individuals and economic sectors. A column by Kenneth Rogoff.

One key lesson from Japan’s experience is that it is exceedingly difficult to generate inflation in an aging society with excess savings and abundant capital. A column by Daniel Gros.

Short of a strong Biden effect, here we are, stuck with a weak dollar just when we do not want it in Europe. It means a weak return to growth along with continually low inflation. A column by Charles Wyplosz.

US-China relations are on the brink of collapse. Economic decoupling is already a reality, and US-led cultural separation may soon be. That would be a tragedy. A column by Minxin Pei.

Megacities like London or New York might be bound to share the same fate as great cities of the past, like Venice. Covid has heightened preexisting tensions. A column by Harold James.

The economic conditions are too closely tied to the pandemic’s trajectory to be able to forecast the course of recovery. Effects include a loss of small businesses and human capital. A column by Michael J. Boskin.

European countries should be prepared to accept Belarusian refugees, and they ought to provide financial support to nongovernmental organizations and cultural institutions. A column by Sławomir Sierakowski.

The more severe the downturn, the greater the damage, the longer the healing, and the higher the likelihood of a double dip. A column by Stephen S. Roach.

In retrospect, it would not have been unreasonable to assume that South Korea would suffer more than other OECD countries from the pandemic. But quite the opposite happened. A column by Jim O’Neill.